Barbados is a very cool place. I stayed practically on the beach with some members of the elite triathlon academy and collegiate recruitment program (both USAT funded groups). This was a nice experience, as I had other Americans to talk to and hang out with before and after the race. The race itself was a bit of a train wreck, (literally!) as every male athlete crashed on the slippery roads at least once. I got an especially bad break when my chain jammed following a pileup with most of the Canadian team. I should backtrack and say that I actually had a pretty good swim despite feeling tired, and exited at the front of the race with Luke Farkas and a small lead pack. From that point on though, my legs felt useless and after my crash I lacked my usual power that would let me time trial back to the leaders. I capped things off with a very slow run, but I did finish the race and picked up a few ITU points on the day.
I spent some time reflecting to figure out what went wrong and I think it boils down to mental preparation. I got a little too focused on "going for the win" and lost sight of my process goals as I worked into a bit of a mental frenzy. Something to work on as I keep growing as an athlete.
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| Photo:competitor.com |
Fast forward to Wednesday and the F1 Super Sprint in San Diego. I felt very relaxed going into the qualifying round and sailed through without a problem. Except that I crashed. Again. I haven't crashed on my bike in about 5 years, and somehow I manage to end up on the ground twice in 4 days. This time my rear skewer was a little loose. I must not have tightened it in my haste to rebuild my bike following the Barbados experience. I had a 20 second lead out of the water and I was back on my bike fast enough following the crash that no one even realized that I had gone down. (the turn was the only spot not visible to most spectators) I rode solo for the 6k bike, ran one lap of the run hard, and then shut it down to save energy for the final.
I lined up next to some top names in triathlon for the main event. Laurent Vidal of France, Aaron Royle of Australia, the Vasiliev brothers from Russia, my training partner, Joe Maloy, Tommy Zafares of USA, and Clark Ellice of New Zealand were the headliners in a 20 man stacked field. I mixed it up well in the first swim, exiting comfortably with the leaders, and then rode hard in the first bike, hoping to help push out the gap to the chasers. I probably should have chilled a little more, as I was the only athlete in the bunch without World-Class results, but in the heat of the moment I couldn't help myself, and I payed for it a bit on the first run. I lost about 15 seconds to the leaders, and couldn't make it up on the second swim. I went out on the second bike only 10 seconds behind the younger Vasiliev brother, but he rode phenomenally and I was unable to close the gap, riding the second bike solo. I held on during the second run, holding off the charging Clark Ellice for 6th place.
I'm pretty happy with this result, especially considering the short turnaround from my race on Sunday in Barbados. There were also some great pictures from the race, check them out here:
